Origin and Nature of Inertia in Spacetime Physics

As pointed out in the previous chapter the brilliant analyses of real and thought experimentsThought experiments carried out by GalileoGalileo [2], which resulted in disproving Aristotle’s view of motion, led him not only to what we now call Galileo’s principle of relativityGalileo’s principle of relativity (uniform motion, i.e., motion by inertia, cannot be detected by mechanical experiments) but those analyses first led him to what we now call Galileo’s principle of inertiaGalileo’s principle of inertia (which was essential for disproving Aristotle’s view of motion)—bodies preserve their state of rest or of uniform motion (they continue to move on their own without a mover until prevented from doing so).